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‘Human beings have endless greed…’
“Davey… Enough. You already spent three gold on it. Are you crazy? There aren’t any more balls to draw. Stop it!”
‘Which makes them repeat the same mistakes.’
“One more… Huh?”
In the basket before Davey was a heap of opened balls. He stared blankly at the pile before glaring at Elder Goulda, who was chuckling in amusement.
Elder Goulda then showed Davey a list and said, “Since you played a lot, Wise Teacher, I will give you everything that you drew from the balls.”
“Damn it. What have I done?”
Maybe it was because Davey had played too many games in his past life, but he had been lured into this gambling game even though he already knew the consequences.
“Whoo~ What an amazing record! Pahahaha!!”
“We’ll see, Elder Goulda.”
“Ahem! You chose to do it, Wise Teacher. No refunds!”
Davey scoffed at Elder Golgouda, who held the basket of coins close like a treasure.
“Anyway, Wise Teacher, are you on a date?”
Illyna gasped. She was rendered speechless by that question.
“Hahaha! Well, that doesn’t really matter! There’s a gallery made by craftsmen over there! I don’t know if it will meet your standards, but there are a lot of artworks that have been made with quite some dedication. Go take a look.”
Davey nodded quietly at Elder Goulda’s proposal.
Apart from the quality, most dwarf galleries competed for their artistic design or intricacy of the work. Perhaps this was why Illyna could not take her eyes off of the various artworks and beautifully detailed accessories that were rare in the outside world.
Although she would have seen numerous beautiful things as royalty, Illyna could not say anything but just gasp at the gallery’s beauty. “Wow… Wow, this…”
Like the objects recorded in the Mining Travelog, a famous bestseller, the works on display at the Mining Festival did not disappoint. The flamboyant artworks struck everyone in awe.
“Ah, Wise Teacher! You’re here!”
It was Elder Golgouda. He chuckled when Davey sighed at how the dwarf had recognized him instantly as if the mask was invisible.
“I’m glad you came! I knew you were going to see us dwarves first! Ahem! Come inside and take it in! Us Yellowstone craftsmen really worked hard on this, so I’m sure you’ll see a couple that is to your liking!”
“Hm…”
“That’s not everything. You remember Tors, the guy from the Blackstone Tribe? He must have said something because they sent over multiple artworks as well.”
“I saw some artworks that had a slightly different style; that must be the Blackstone Tribe’s.”
“Hahaha! Of course, you caught that instantly, Wise Teacher! How is it? Will you contribute your artwork for the next Mining Festival?”
“That’s a good idea.”
It was just as Elder Golgouda, who was giggling at his small victory, confidently predicted; looking at the dwarves’ artwork that had been worked on for a long time for this day, Davey could feel that they were made with their souls and he wanted to make something new as well.
“Wow… I’ve never seen Mermaid’s Tears refined like this…” Illyna looked at the beautiful blue jewel with sparkling eyes, expressing a hint of desire in her gaze. The jewel made people want it, and she wanted it. However, she did not show any more desire than that, but she still could not take her eyes off it.
“…” Davey quietly watched Illyna stare at the glass case, then glanced over at Elder Golgouda, who was standing beside him with a friendly smile.
“Wise Teacher.”
“How are you recognizing me when I have a mask on?”
“Hahaha, why don’t you try to cover the sky with your hands as well? I have prepared what you asked for.”
Then, Golgouda gave Davey a small box and added, “I repeated heating and cooling for one hundred fifty-two hours in the Great Furnace exactly as you said.”
Elder Golgouda smiled as Davey stared at the box in surprise. He asked, “Anyway, is it that beautiful princess who will be getting this?”
“Pardon?”
“Haha!! You have to jump right into it and make grand gestures when you’re young! When I was younger, I beat five or six dwarves to get my girl!”
Davey scoffed, but Elder Golgouda shook his finger like he knew everything before walking away.
“Davey, I think we’ve seen everything here. What are you doing?”
Playing with the box in his hands, Davey turned to look at Illyna when she tapped his shoulder and called him. Then, he hid the box and slowly walked with her. He murmured, “It’s nothing.”
“Let’s go! There’s still so much to see!”
Illyna’s smile did not disappear for a while, like a child who found a new toy.
* * *
“This place… Woah, you can see the entire territory from here!” Illyna, who was looking around in the silent atmosphere, was surprised at the view of the entire territory.
As this was the highest place in the entire land, the entire Heins Territory could be seen from here clearly. And in a way, it was a solitary resting place for Davey; it was where he came to clear his head when there was a lot on his mind. As such, most of the equipment here met all of his standards or were according to his preference, like a hammock or pavilion, and a large wooden chair so that he could look down on the entire territory.
“But no one is here?” Illyna asked.
This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
“This place is off-limits to other people.”
Illyna twirled and looked around as if she had gotten used to the silence. Then, Davey pulled out a pocket watch and checked the current time. He commented, “It’s almost time.”
“Time?”
“Yes, time to use the things I asked from you.”
Illyna nodded as if she understood Davey. “Oh, right, you purchased a large amount of Flare Break Stone from the Pallan Empire. It’s for the festival.”
Then, Illyna frowned slightly in puzzlement. “I still don’t understand. We accepted because we were intrigued by your status as a Swordmaster, but…the foreign export of Flare Break Stone is very strictly regulated.”
Dozens of people could die if even a little child used it. Illyna was saying that Flare Break Stones weren’t easy to obtain even with money, as they had a high chance of being used in horrendous terrors. Of course, Davey bypassed the middle part of the transaction with Illyna’s authority, but it would be problematic for her as well if she didn’t know what they were being used for either.
“So? Seriously, which part of the festival are you going to use that explosive for?” Illyna asked.
Davey answered while staring down at the territory from the watchtower. “What do you mean? I have to blow everything up.”
“B—Blow up?”
Of course, if an object was meant to explode, it should be blown up.
“What?! Are you saying you are going to blow up all those explosive magic stones in the plaza?!”
“No.” Davey pointed at the sky and clarified, “I’m going to blow it up there.”
“The…sky?”
“It’s going to be a rare sight. Take a good look,” Davey told Illyna. Then, he covered his ear with two fingers and asked, “Rinne, can you hear me?”
[Sir Davey?]
Then, Rinne’s voice rang throughout Davey’s head.
“Are you ready?”
[The Decepticon Fleet. Rinne’s proud juniors. Rinne highly appreciates their thorough preparation.]
“Good.”
Illyna looked puzzled at how Davey was mumbling to himself.
“It’s time to start the finale. Let’s begin the Flowers of the Air.”
[Command accepted.]
“Flowers of the Air?”
“You’ll see.”
There was something similar to the concept of fireworks in the Tionis continent as well, but…
Ping!! Ping!!
It didn’t have the technology to recreate the modern fireworks on Earth.
Illyna looked puzzled as the shining objects flew into the air one by one from all over the territory.
“That’s…”
“Flare Break Stone.”
Red, blue, and gold stones; as the colorful objects flew up into the air, the puzzled Illyna was extremely shocked and stared at him with wide eyes when Davey told her what they were.
“What?! Are you crazy?! You don’t know what will happen if you shoot them up in the air?! What were you thinking?!”
“Stop worrying and look.”
Annoyed by Davey’s nonchalant attitude, Illyna looked up at the sky.
Boom!!!
Boom!!
Illyna was going to look at Davey again in frustration, but she looked back at the sky in surprise. At the same time, her eyes widened. She muttered, “What is…”
It was like someone had painted the sky. The shining stones exploded in the sky after reaching a certain distance, and covered the sky in large fragments of light. They became flowers or animals; the images were all unique and in different colors, but they all had a breathtaking beauty to them. Even Illyna, who was shouting at Davey and calling him crazy, could not peel her eyes away from the artwork in the sky and stared at it in awe.
Ping! Boom!! Crackle!!
The light scattered into dust, shone, then burned away on its own. The light burned and crackled away in a short period of time, but that was enough to grab everyone’s attention.
“How is it?”
“Oh my… That’s possible…with Flare Break Stones?”
“Well, I used other materials too, but I did use some of it.”
“It’s beautiful…” Illyna sincerely gasped in amazement.
Watching the successfully executed fireworks in satisfaction, Davey pulled out a small box and said to Illyna, “Here.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a present. It will help with mana circulation.”
Illyna, who opened the box in puzzlement, mumbled in surprise after opening the box, “This is…”
The box only had a sapphire necklace. Considering everything Davey and Illyna had experienced together, a jewel-decorated necklace was very simple and small. In fact, a sapphire was a common jewel that could be obtained easily. However, this one was a little different. Unlike other ordinary sapphires, a faint blue light was circulating through the artistically engraved patterns on the jewel.
“It’s not just any sapphire. It’s valuable,” Davey said.
The sapphire had undergone a continuous process of heating and quick cooling in the dwarves’ Great Furnace for days. Some may wonder what kind of lunatic would do something like that to a necklace, but thanks to that, a common jewel like a sapphire had turned into something that could not be traded for anything else.
“Why are you giving me this?” Illyna looked up at Davey with a trembling gaze.
Davey told Illyna about the necklace’s simple purpose. “A bribe.”